Bramble-bees and Others 



of belief. One leads to two, no doubt; the 

 single blow of the predatory Wasp will never 

 lead to the blow twice delivered. 



In order to live, we all require the condi- 

 tions that enable us to live : this Is a truth 

 worthy of the famous axioms of La Palice.^ 

 The predatory insects live by their talent. If 

 they do not possess it to perfection, their race 

 is lost. Hidden in the murk of the past ages, 

 the argument based upon the non-existence of 

 fossil instinct is no better able than the others 

 to withstand the light of living realities; it 

 crumbles under the stroke of fate; it vanishes 

 before a La Palice platitude. 



^Jacques de Chabannes, Seigneur de La Palice {circa 

 1470-1525), was a French captain killed at the battle 

 of Pavia. His soldiers made up in his honour a ballad, 

 two lines of which, translated, run: 



Fifteen minutes before he died, 

 He was still alive. 



Hence the French expression, une verite de La Palice, 

 meaning an obvious truth. — Translator's Note. 



364 



